Self-Persuaded: The Definitive Guide to the Art of Mind Management

It’s no secret (nor surprise) that the world in which we live is a very complex place.

As of the time of this writing, there’s ~8 billion people on planet Earth, with that number expected to creep towards 10 billion.

In a world with so much diversity of people comes diversity of thought, opinion, and distraction of all sorts, sizes, and shades.

Without any type of “mental filter” to sift through the wide variety of five sensory information, there is a very good chance that an individual will become overwhelmed.

This is where the need for mind management comes into play.

This article will be all about managing the mind and the various philosophies, strategies, and tactics surrounding properly managing the mind

It will also cover:

Why you need to understand this discipline in the 21st century
The necessary background/training/socialization needed to properly manage the mind
Nuanced tactics to manage the mind
How to get started implementing these ASAP

Let’s dig into the inner workings of one of the most important concepts that ever was.

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The 21st Century Environment and the Need for Mind Management

For anyone who has been paying attention, it’s quite clear we live in an “interesting” time in history.

For most of humanity’s developmental history, we lived in small to medium sized tribes and groups with relatively little contact with most “outsiders”.

This changed during the evolution of civilization, which created cities, places where massive amounts of people from various areas could congregate to contribute to collective goals.

As time went on, the urban started to be re-created in various areas of the globe, giving rise to multiple “cosmopolises” which continued on into our modern era. These cities like Beijing, Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, Barcelona, and New York attract people from all over the globe with different backgrounds, socializations, and of course — opinions.

Add in the fact that our world is more connected now more than ever, you are exposed to a wide variety of different thoughts and opinions on a daily basis. Without any sort of powerful mind control techniques or knowledge of how to manage the mind, you will find yourself confused, lost, and without direction.

This is why it is so important to develop a working toolset and knowledge about how to manage your own mind.

Mind Management Skills and Basics: Training + Socialization

An ideal socialization process involves teaching the individual how to manage their own mind.

Unfortunately, for many of us, this socialization process was not ideal or completely nonexistent.

Much of our conditioning was centered around some form of compliance, manipulation or intimidation. Therefore, we have to start the hard and disciplined work of mind management. Here’s a few basics:

The Conscious and Subconscious Minds

Your mental landscape is divided into two minds: the conscious and the subconscious.

Your conscious mind is responsible for planning, strategizing, and directing your waking actions. This is the “you” that you refer to as yourself. While this is good to have, your conscious mind does not direct your life. It’s probably only responsible for 5-10% of what you do on a daily basis.

Your subconscious mind is the main player in your life. It is the seat of your habits, biases, and mental programming. This is the hidden figure directing your life. Think of it like the background programs running on your computer.

The subconscious is where the really good stuff happens. Unfortunately, many people are programmed in a negative and counterproductive manner stemming back from early childhood.

If this programming is not changed or revisited, it will perpetuate itself in your life. You will date people who share similar characteristics, you will apply for (and quit) the same types of jobs, you will perpetuate family dysfunction.

Simply put: you will relive the same experiences over and over until the day you die.

This sounds terrible but all hope is not lost. Your brain can be re-programmed through many methods and one of these is autosuggestion.

To learn more about how Autosuggestion can help you, check out How to Use Autosuggestion Effectively: The Definitive Guide.

Psycho-Cybernetics

It is no exaggeration to say that every human being is hypnotized to some extent either by ideas he has uncritically accepted from others or ideas he has repeated to himself or convinced himself are true. These negative ideas have exactly the same effect upon our behavior as the negative ideas implanted into the mind of a hypnotized subject by a professional hypnotist. – Maxwell Maltz, Psycho-Cybernetics

Following from the train of thought above, every human has inner programming which directs their life from the background.

This programming usually was implanted as a young child (as young children are very impressionable) and is usually never revisited.

This can be good if the programming was good (encouragement as a young child, positive experiences in self-efficacy). However, this can be bad if the programming was negative and destructive (put downs, abuse, etc.)

These programs are self-fulfilling prophecies that lead to their own ends or “goals”.

Dr. Maxwell Maltz, the author of Psycho-Cybernetics argues that humans are “teleological” or “goal seeking organisms”. We are always in pursuit of some goal whether consciously or unconsciously.

Since your unconscious programming is driving you in a certain direction, he recommends changing that subconscious self-image through a series of steps outlined in the book Psycho-Cybernetics.

If you want a quick run-through of the book, check out Psycho-Cybernetics: An In-Depth Guide on How to Use and Apply For Massive Success.

Dealing With Boredom

To the average person, boredom is one of the most difficult things to experience. This is because boredom is such an exposing thing that it often creates mental rumination.

Regardless, learning how to deal with boredom is a key step towards becoming a productive adult and mastering the skills of this discipline.

To learn how deal with boredom the right way, check out How to Deal With Boredom and Transmute the Pain of “the Void”.

The Philosophy and Psychology of Mind Management

When we start to dive deeper into the art and science of properly managing the mind, we come to terms with its philosophical and psychological underpinnings.

These are a few of them and how you can use them to better inform your own strategy.

Monk Mode

Monk mode has been growing in prevalence for a few years and for good reason. It is a way for the individual to properly orient themselves to our current environment of overstimulation.

Taking cues from people who cloister themselves for years at a time, monk mode involves limiting one’s interaction with the outside world in order to further cultivate inner stillness and an overall baseline of productivity.

To learn more about monk mode, check out The Complete (and Expansive) Guide to Monk Mode.

To learn more about how you should structure your schedule during monk mode, check out Why You Need a Schedule During Monk Mode.

Paradigm Shift

Everyone has a lens through which they see the world. This is called a “paradigm”. Your paradigm is formed from a combination of your upbringing, your socialization, and your habits.

Paradigms are so subtle that you don’t even consider yourself “looking out” through it. Think of staring out of a window in your house or apartment. That window is fixed in a particular viewpoint. Therefore, you can only see what that window shows you.

That’s a paradigm. You will only “see” what your paradigm allows.

If you want to properly manage your mind, you need to know how paradigms work and more importantly — how to change them.

To dig in deeper into paradigms, check out Paradigm Shifting: 5 Mental Re-frames to Drastically Improve Your Life.

Locus of Control

Since there are so many things happening in life, it’s important to come to terms with what you can directly control, what you can somewhat control, what you can influence, and what you have no control over whatsoever.

Someone’s locus of control is the perception of what they have control over.

Generally, most people under or overestimate their locus of control. Meaning, they act helpless in situations where they have tremendous amounts of control or try to control things that are not in their control whatsoever.

If you want to properly have control over your mind, you must have a working knowledge of this concept.

To learn more about the concept of locus of control, check out Develop Your Locus of Control: 4 Tactics to Become the Master of Your Reality.

How to Implement Proper Mind Management (Tactics)

Now that we understand some basics behind managing our minds, let’s get into some ways on how to implement this.

Develop creative imagination

“Imagination is seeing with the eye of God.“ – Neville Goddard

When you think about it…there’s little that separates humans from animals, with the exception of the mind (which is why we’re talking about this topic).

The mind can plan, project into the future, wander into the past, and most importantly — imagine. The exercise of imagination is the difference between a properly organized life full of color and one that’s one monotonous string of the same old bullshit.

Developing and exercising your imagination will allow you to find new and creative ways to solve problems.

To learn more about how to use your imagination, check out Creative Imagination: The Secret to Obtaining Amazing Results In Life.

Manage your mental diet

Just like you have a physical diet, you also have a mental diet. The quality of your diet will determine the quality of results you can produce.

Therefore, if you want good results, you need a good mental diet.

To learn more about mental dieting, check out Positivity Challenge: How to Create a Junk-Free Mental Diet.

Develop positive thinking

Following from the point above, most people’s mental diet is of a negative nature. They absorb negative news, they look for reasons why something can’t be done, and overall — many people’s disposition towards life is detrimental.

Unfortunately, negative thinking leads to more negativity, which leads to more, until you are in an inescapable downward spiral.

The only way to put a jam in this is to practice positive thinking.

For many people, this will be challenging but it will easily be one of the best things you do to manage your mind.

To learn more about positive thinking, check out How to Think Powerful Thoughts: Mastering and Understanding Positive Thinking

Many people have some degree of social anxiety.

However, instead of dealing with it via some form of exposure therapy, many people actively run away from it, which makes it continue to make itself known in your life.

The only way to beat social anxiety is to face it head on. If you have social anxiety, it will be one of the biggest obstacles you face on the path to properly managing your mind and it’s respective and peace of mind.

To learn more about how to overcome social anxiety, check out Conquer Social Anxiety With These 4 Powerful Methods.

Practice isolation

There is great power in isolation, contrary to what some people think.

Isolation helps you to know yourself and understand the inner depths of your mind.

While not necessary, putting yourself in personal isolation can help you in your quest of managing your mind.

To learn more about how isolation can help you, check out Tapping Into the Power of Isolation.

Develop self-awareness

Self-awareness is a critical skill to develop if you want to really make something out of yourself in life. Simply put, it’s the ability to contextually view yourself, your actions, and your effect in the larger world from an objective point of view.

I’d argue that without it, no meaningful progress in any area of managing your mind can be made. It’s a difficult skill to develop to high levels, but it certainly can be done.

To learn more about how self-awareness can help you in life, check out Developing the Shining Light of Self-Awareness in a Dark World.

Conclusion + Wrapping Up

If you want to start with self-development, here is the place to start: managing your mind. It all starts with you and how you can manage yourself and most importantly manage your mind.

Learning how to master this skill will place you in the driver’s seat of your life. You can read about all of the self-development, learn all the techniques and tactics, etc… But without properly organizing the mind, it’s not going to work.

Once you manage your mind and take your rightful seat on the throne, you’re not going to want to go back.

And if you want some good ways to get a handle on your psychology, check out the course Cornerstone. Psychology is a main module in the course and it’s chock full of strategies, tactics, and mindsets I haven’t shared here.

If you want more information on it, hit the jump below.